A minority ethnic group that lives primarily in South Africa’s northeastern Limpopo Province and the language they speak (both the group and the language are also known as Northern Sotho). Trevor’s prom date Babiki is Pedi and speaks no other language, so for one of the only times in his life, he finds himself unable to communicate with someone else in Johannesburg.
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Pedi Term Timeline in Born a Crime
The timeline below shows where the term Pedi appears in Born a Crime. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 14
...Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, and Ndebele are major native languages; while Swazi, Tsonga, Venda, Sotho, and Pedi are less widespread. There are “dozens more” local African languages too small “to demand recognition.”...
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...visit Babiki’s family some more in the next few weeks; they are from the smaller Pedi tribe and try to look rich, buying expensive clothes despite their poverty, which is not...
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...means for him to have a “girlfriend.” Their communication “was always through Tim,” who speaks Pedi. Babiki’s sisters speak English, but she does not, and Trevor is used to missing parts...
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Trevor tries “every language I knew” and asks everyone he can find if they speak Pedi—nobody does. He spends the rest of the night in the parking lot and drives Babiki...
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